[1] This painting has been linked to a commission from Don Antonio Ruffo, an important art collector from Messina, to Artemisia Gentileschi: arguments in favor of this provenance can be found in Nicola Spinosa's essay in Bernardo Cavallino (1616-1656), exh. cat., Museo Pignatelli, Naples, 1985: 188 and 219; Jozef Grabski, "On Seicento Painting in Naples: Some Observations on Bernardo Cavallino, Artemisia Gentileschi and Others," Artibus et Historiae 11 (1985): 23-63 (41-55); and especially R. Ward Bissell, Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art. Critical Reading and Catalogue Raisonné, University Park, 1999: 287-288. However, a number of discrepancies between the inventory description of the Ruffo canvas and the NGA painting call this provenance into question. Furthermore, technical examination of the work has found no evidence of the separate hands of both Artemisia, to whom the commission was awarded, and Cavallino. It is therefore unlikely that the NGA painting is the one described in Ruffo's collection.
More recently, Christopher Marshall put forward another possible provenance for the work. The collection of Antonio Arici in Naples held "a Galatea, with various putti, who rides on the sea...by Bernardo Cavalliero." This connection, however, proves equally problematic. While the recorded dimensions correspond with those of the NGA 2000.61.1, it is rather surprising that the inventory, probably drawn up by Arici's own sister in 1744, would mistake the adult seafaring tritons in the NGA painting for putti (Christopher R. Marshall, "An early inventory reference and new technical information for Bernardo Cavallino's 'Triumph of Galatea'," The Burlington Magazine CXLVII (2005): 42-43. The connection with Arici was first suggested by Stefano Causa, "Risarcimento di Onofrio Palumbo," Paragone 37-8 (1993): 36 n. 29.